O Panneerselvam

O Panneerselvam is a senior AIADMK leader who has served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu multiple times. He has also served in the capacity of finance minister of the state. He was known to be close to late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and was considered her Man Friday. He joined the party in 1977 and was elected in 2011 as a lawmaker from the Bodinayakkanur constituency.

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The rally comes at a time when the two factions, led by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, seem set to seal a merger deal by ousting Sasikala and her family from the party.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Palaniswami’s comments come in the wake of the rival O Panneerselvam-led Puratchi Thalaivi Amma faction stating that it had not heard from the Amma camp on the merger talks. The merger has been on the cards for sometime.

Though the K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam camp had initiated steps for discussing modalities of merger, the latter had disbanded a committed formed for this purpose saying their main demand was ouster of V K Sasikala and Dhinakaran from the party.

O Panneerselvam had been accorded CRPF security cover by the Centre from April 2 in the wake of incidents including, hurling of stones on his vehicle after he had revolted against AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala’s leadership in February this year.

Panneerselvam reiterated that his party’s “dharma yudh” would continue till the ‘mysterious knots’ in the death of Jayalalithaa were removed. Panneerselvam-led AIADMK faction had on March 8 staged a one-day fast here and in the district capitals, demanding an independent probe into the demise of Jayalalithaa.

Panneerselvam said BJP National President Amit Shah had sought support from him for Kovind and the matter was discussed with senior functionaries of the faction on Thursday, besides MPs and MLAs owing allegiance to him.